


in a different life we were lovers

by DCG94



Series: The Ruling Party [1]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, BAMF Mal (Disney), BAMF Uma (Disney), F/F, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Leader Mal (Disney), Leader Uma (Disney), One Shot, One Shot Collection, Politics on the Isle of the Lost (Disney), Pre-Canon, Strong Female Characters, Teenage Rulers, Teenagers, The Kids Run the Show, Unresolved, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:15:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28187532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DCG94/pseuds/DCG94
Summary: The Isle's infrastructure is surprisingly delicate given the fact that it's inhabited by criminals. With parents lost in the good ole days, Mal and Uma have had to work miracles keeping the tentative peace between ruling villains. But when an old rival makes trouble, Uma has to put her feelings aside and make the decision that's right for everyone.A peek into the Isle's politics, and how a few teenagers have managed to stop all-out war from destroying the only home they've ever known.
Relationships: Harry Hook/Gil (implied), Mal/Uma (Disney)
Series: The Ruling Party [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064900
Comments: 7
Kudos: 24





	in a different life we were lovers

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for heavily implied teenage sex. Both participants are minors of the same age, and there's nothing explicit, but it is obvious that they've had sex. 
> 
> Please take care of yourselves, and please let me know if I need to tag anything else!

Uma stirs when the blanket shifts, letting the cool morning air in. She doesn’t reach out, even though she wants to. Her touch isn’t wanted now.

Instead she groans, forces herself to sit up, and reaches blindly for some kind of clothing.

Mal is already getting dressed, her curls bouncing wildly as she works her way into her pants.

“My mom wants a meeting,” she says, not bothering to look back, as Uma pulls her jacket on. “The shipment’s coming in tomorrow and if Facilier gets there before we do there’ll be hell to pay.”

“Harry mentioned he’s been stirring up trouble again,” Uma notes with a frown. 

The Isle is a deceptively delicate infrastructure, alliances tenuous at the best of times. Maleficent has managed to maintain some semblance of control, mostly cashing in on her reputation and outdated alliances from before the Isle, but Facilier has never been cowed by her. He has plenty of his own followers, plenty of his own alliances, but Uma knows he trades in fantasies. If he got control of the Isle’s quarterly shipment of goods, he’d upset the entire system. Ursula would move to back him – she moves as the wind blows, puts her power behind whoever’s _got_ the power.

But if Facilier got power, he’d turn the streets into a warzone. He doesn’t know the first thing about managing resources, or people. To be fair, neither does Maleficent, but _Mal_ does. Mal has a good head for leadership, a good head for risk assessment and usually, she has enough pull with her mom that she can take care of the administrative bullshit while Maleficent and her cadre keep reliving their glory days.  


Uma’s mom’s the same way, if at least a little more in touch with reality than Maleficent.

A little.

“Dizzy says Faceilier has a new backer,” Mal says. She shrugs into her own jacket ad fluffs her hair, totally oblivious to the way the motion makes Uma’s heart flutter. Among other things.  


“Who?” Uma shimmies into her skirt, thrown carelessly aside at some point last night – she doesn’t actually remember it coming off, but that’s nothing new. “It’s not like we’ve got any new players.”

Damn, she’s got to get this stupid crush under control. Mal isn’t the type to settle down, and if Uma presses for more than this, Mal will pull away entirely.

No one on the Isle can afford that.

Uma thinks she’s imagining the flicker of emotion that crosses Mal’s face before she says, “Hades.”

Uma stiffens. Hades has stayed out of the Isle power plays. He’s been essentially a hermit for as long as anyone can remember, only showing his face to collect whatever supplies he can’t scavenge for himself.

Hades is a game-changer. He’s the only exile who might be able to challenge even Maleficent for power, and he has millennia of experience in the most cutthroat court in history behind him.

If he’s backing Facilier… all they need is one chance, the right opportunity and the scales on the Isle will tip. Possibly for good.

Control of the supply shipment is exactly the kind of chance they need.

“Shit. You’re sure?”

“Dizzy’s my most reliable source. She’s never given me bad intel. The supply shipment is the perfect time to strike, the whole Isle will be there. We need to regroup, put our resources together to make sure _we_ end up meeting it.”

Uma frowns. “I’ll round up Harry and Gil. Get your crew together, we’ll meet in your loft. We need to discuss this. Before our moms get involved.”

Mal watches her for a few moments, considering.

“Fine. Half an hour, my loft.”

Mal turns and sashays out, leaving Uma half-dressed and aching.

Great. No time to take care of that problem, she needs to get down to the cantina.

-

Gil is probably not the best person to bring to a strategy meeting, but Harry is, and Harry doesn’t go anywhere without Gil.

Mal’s crew are, admittedly, a more formidable group, even if they take a while to get themselves together. What they lack in muscle, they make up for in brain cells. It’s arguable which is more advantageous on the Isle, but they make it work between them.

Evie’s fixing her hair in a cracked mirror against one wall when they walk up, while Carlos and Jay wrestle in one corner. Mal is the one to notice they’ve arrived; she barks a reprimand that has the boys straightening and Evie flouncing her hair before coming to flank Mal.

Mal looks like she always looks: like she’s daring you to try something – hips cocked, arms crossed over her chest, one eyebrow raised. It’s gorgeous, is what it is, and damned distracting.

“Let’s get to it,” she says. “We need to come up with a plan, find some way to cover the bay before Facilier can. How much muscle can you get together by the end of the day?”

“The shipment doesnae come in until tomorrow mid-day,” Harry drawls, examining his hook like he hadn’t tirelessly polished it to a shine on the way over. “Getting’ our squad to wait through the night? Willnae be easy.”

“Won’t matter all that much if Facilier gets there first because someone got lazy,” Carlos bites out. “This is the whole reason for the alliance.”

“The grown-ups are talking, puppy,” Uma says. She waves Carlos off, keeping her attention on Mal. “Go play with your chew toy.”

“Take that back!”

Jay catches Carlos before he can do whatever damage he thinks he can do against Uma, let alone Uma backed by Harry and Gil. Carlos is squirrelly, but he hasn’t got much skill when it comes to an actual fight.

Not that Uma or Mall will let things come to blows.

“Look,” Mal huffs. “My mom promised yours the run of the streets, but only if you can pull through for us. We need muscle, you have muscle to spare.”

Uma takes her time coming up with a response. There's a way this ends with everyone happy and Uma’s not entirely sure how to get there. Ideally it would have been last night, before they fucked – but they decided ( _Mal_ decided) that mixing business and pleasure would lead to errors in judgement. So if they’re talking matters of state, they do it with witnesses, in what amounts to a small council chamber.

Sometimes it works in everyone’s favor. It does a good job of keeping people honest, and it covers each other’s blind spots.

But sometimes it royally sucks. Like now, when Evie crosses her arms and scowls, “You don’t want to commit.”

The atmosphere shifts; everyone tenses as they realize Evie’s right.

Harry readies his hook, Gil shifts so he can jump in front of Uma if things get hairy.

“Uma?” Mal asks, mouth ticking down from a pout to a frown.

Uma crosses her own arms, raising an eyebrow.

“Hades changes things,” she says. “We stuck with Maleficent because that’s what we had to do to survive. But we never signed on to go to war with a god.”

Mal scoffs. “He doesn’t have any real power. He can’t actually smite you, you know.”

“Maybe not, but neither can Maleficent. Look, my mom and Hades have history. I don’t know what kind, but she owes him. So if you want her to forget that… you’re gonna have to make it worth her while.”

The last thing Uma wants is to betray Mal. She honestly thinks Mal is the best person to lead the Isle, but if Mom doesn’t get something better out of this she’s _going_ to ally with Hades.

Mal, to her credit, takes time to consider what Uma’s saying, and that Uma is serious. She doesn’t waste anyone’s time pretending to be hurt or surprised; she just regards Uma with that piercing gaze, careful and calculating as always.

Shit, this crush is really making it hard to keep things professional.

Maybe Mal has the right idea, keeping things just business between them. (Mal is the one who keeps showing up at her door.) Sleeping with her is… making this harder than it needs to be.  


Not impossible, just harder.

“We want first pick of the drop,” Uma says. “Same cut Maleficent gets.”

“The cadre gets fifty percent of the initial drop.”

Mal backs away, listens as Evie whispers in her ear. She nods, then turns her attention back to Uma. “Mom personally gets a quarter of that. She won’t go for a smaller cut.”

“First pick and an equal share with the cadre, then. We want to be the sole distributor for food on the Isle.”

It’s a bold move. Right now the Evil Queen is in direct competition with Ursula for food distribution; it’s also the only way Mom will even _consider_ staying with Maleficent.

Evie doesn’t look happy about it, but she doesn’t say anything. Food isn’t the only trade the Evil Queen has a hand in; she partners with Maleficent in magical contraband, and with Jafar and Cruella in textiles. She’ll survive without the food from the drop, especially since Uma’s like, eighty percent sure the Evil Queen is behind the recent produce shortage.

The Isle doesn’t support much plant life, even less that’s edible, but over the last year or so _someone_ has been harvesting everything and redistributing it wholesale. Uma hasn’t gotten any conclusive evidence, but everything she _has_ gathered points to the Evil Queen.

Still, even if the Evil Queen can spare the food, it gives Ursula significantly more power than Maleficent will be comfortable with. But if Ursula sides with Facilier and Hades, well, Maleficent is done for.

So they can’t really afford to deny her this.

Mal pulls Evie far enough away that they’re out of earshot; they don’t bother pretending they’re not talking about Uma and Ursula, and Uma’s not dumb enough to think Evie doesn’t know that she and Mal sleep together; no doubt she’s throwing that in Mal’s face, using it to question Mal’s objectivity.

They fall completely silent, their faces expressing more than their words can, and Uma has time to wish she were that close to someone. That close to Mal.

Eventually Evie backs off; she looks down, lips pressed into a thin line, and nods. Mal softens, almost imperceptibly, before straightening and leading the way back to the group.

“Control of the food trade, on top of her current portion. Mom gets first pick, then the Evil Queen, then Ursula with the understanding that no one will touch the food. Ursula stands with us against Facilier _and_ Hades. We get your muscle. As per our _original agreement_. Remind your mother that she signed a contract.”

Uma nods. For Mom, a contract is just as binding now as it had been back when she had her magic; Hades presents her with a loophole, as the original contract had only specified standing with Maleficent against Facilier.

“We’ll have Smee draw up a new treaty,” Uma says by way of agreement.

“Take Evie with you. We’ll all meet in the Cantina to finalize the deal.”


End file.
